College Tuition

[Kulaf]

http://finance.yahoo.com/college-educat ... to-explode

Now setting asside for a moment the serious issue of inflated tuition one must ask; how smart do you have to be to spend 50k a year on an undergrad degree in Sociology? By itself an undergrad degree in the Arts is almost entirely worthless. It is only when attaining your masters or PHD that you open the door to any kind of money. I went and looked at the tuition rates at the university I graduated from and for 12-18 credits per semester the price is only $3,500. So with books for an entire year you might pay 10k. No one can convince me that 200k for a four year liberal arts degree is worth more than 40k for the same degree from a state university.

[Partha]

Now setting asside for a moment the serious issue of inflated tuition one must ask; how smart do you have to be to spend 50k a year on an undergrad degree in Sociology?

Not very. Of course, that trend also runs into the whole 'Where you go to school is almost as important as your grades' trend that's now an article of faith and sends the parents of 10 year olds into panic attacks trying to get their kids into the CORRECT school, dont'cha know. Plus the odious amount and quality of economics training in high schools, thanks to declining school budgets.

For anyone who's gotten out of the last 20 years relatively intelligent, much respect, given that all the societal trends are against you.

[Ddrak]

Declare bankruptcy (assuming parents aren't guarantors). 200k in loans with no tangible assets makes that a no-brainer.

But yeah - that level of fees/loans for a liberal arts degree is nuts. Funny thing is after 5 years no one gives a damn what school you went to so long as you have good experience behind you.

Dd

[Minute]

The OBGYN I'm humpin is in her 2nd year of residency. She hit 280k debt before she even entered residency. Now she makes jack shit & works 14 hour days 7 days a week. When she gets out her malpractice & other insurance is going to be astronomical. She's 27 now & we figure she'll be at least 40 before she even gets on the + side. Seems pretty fucked up.

Someone tell me why we don't have free education in this country? It's a serious question for someone who doesn't know the answer. It seems like a win win to me. I just can't seem to find the downside. Seems to me that if there was 1 thing a country could invest in that would only bring positive results would be to further educate it's people.

[Partha]

Someone tell me why we don't have free education in this country? It's a serious question for someone who doesn't know the answer. It seems like a win win to me. I just can't seem to find the downside. Seems to me that if there was 1 thing a country could invest in that would only bring positive results would be to further educate it's people.

Two reasons.

1) Educated people are much harder to fleece.

2) Educated people are much less likely to work the menial jobs that are being created in our new service economy to offset our loss of high tech industry.

[Embar Angylwrath]

@Dd...

Most student loans are protected from bankruptcy in the US.

[Ddrak]

Protected from bankruptcy? That's insane. So if someone can't afford to pay then you force them into a continuous cycle of bad debts rather than hit the lender for not doing proper homework? If you put risk back to the lenders then I think the market would balance pretty well - courses that weren't likely to repay wouldn't attract lenders and you'd have loans that became more expensive as grades got worse.

Dd

[Jarochai Alabaster]

Wasn't there recent legislation allowing people to include student loans in bankruptcy after something like 30 years of deferrals? I seem to recall hearing about this, but I'm not certain and far too lazy right now to look it up.

[Embar Angylwrath]

Protected from bankruptcy? That's insane. So if someone can't afford to pay then you force them into a continuous cycle of bad debts rather than hit the lender for not doing proper homework? If you put risk back to the lenders then I think the market would balance pretty well - courses that weren't likely to repay wouldn't attract lenders and you'd have loans that became more expensive as grades got worse.

Dd

Things may have changed, but yeah, student loans were protected from bankruptcy, just like taxes. Maybe they aren't anymore, but they used to be.